The New Liberal Vision

Jeff Alworth from Notes From the Atrocities has a project to offer a liberal vision of America.

Here is from Suburban Guerilla's Vision: My liberal vision isn't a whole lot different from that of James Carville: If a person plays by the rules, gets a job and works hard, he or she deserves certain basics. Safe shelter, enough food, a decent education for the kids, health care. In other words, basic security. I believe when people have all of those things, they respect themselves. And when they respect themselves, they respect others.

Liberals are often ridiculed because we embody "feminine" traits like empathy and nurturing. The problem is, we sometimes apply those tactics far too liberally to what the average American sees as the "wrong" people - at the perceived detriment of those people who work hard and follow the rules.

So we need to be tough, too- the way moms have to be when dad’s no longer around. We can't be pussies, but we don't have to become bullies instead. It's about balance. We need the policy wonks, but we can’t stop there.

We shouldn't - can't - shut the working class and other non-academics out of the political discussion. In fact, we should actively recruit them. Imagine liberal America without voices like Jimmy Breslin and Studs Terkel! Now we need to find and promote the populist voices of our generation.

Liberalism is ultimately about using the power of government to encourage a level playing field. (Contrary to right-wing Conventional Wisdom, the Great Society anti-poverty programs did work – at least, until we stopped funding them.) And it’s about using the economies of scale to raise the quality of life, as we did with Social Security and Medicare.

Liberals want to invest in the future of children and families – not by making rich people richer and hoping against hope it will eventually trickle down – but through access to quality education. But we need to look at results, too: How many children are still falling through the cracks? When it comes to education, I suspect we’re just as entrenched in our habitual ways as the conservatives.

...The only way we’ll ever dominate is if we win from the ground up, not from the bottom down. All politics are local. Remember that. Your town council is the basic building block of a liberal political strategy. We can’t really win nationally unless we win locally, too.

We need to stop treating commerce as a lesser calling and learn about sales and marketing. We must master the art of framing and dominating the debate, and soak up the language of popular culture. Finally, we must drop the easy cynicism. To win, we need the language of hope. We must address the better angels of our nature.

We need to wave the flag without cringing or confusing it with jingoism – and we can’t fall into the old trap of trying to separate Americans from each other. This is still, after all, the United States of America.

It’s our country, our flag, our ideals. We stand together, on that common ground.